Conventionally made printed flock fabrics involve a process in which the fabric, comprising a flocked coated substrate, is printed utilizing screen printing techniques. Thereafter, the pile is steamed, washed, and properly finished. These products generally result in a fabric having a pile surface of uniform texture, in which the individual fibers are uniformly oriented. Such fabrics have no textured surfaces and rely primarily on the pattern that is imprinted to provide the fabric with its desired characteristics.
Additionally, pile fabrics have been made with textured surfaces. Insofar as the Applicant is aware, however, the textured surfaces herein described have not been fabricated in a multicolor flocked pile fabric in which greige goods are formed with the pile fibers arranged in random groups, extending uniformly across the width and along the length of the fabric, as a result of a specific sequence of steps, including the washing of the greige goods prior to printing.
In the prior art of fabricating multicolored printed flocked pile fabric with a uniform non-textured surface, occasional rejects occur when small numbers of the fibers forming the pile are misoriented from the desired lay of the pile. These rejects or seconds usually result in an imperfect fabric having occasional creases or misdirected groups of fibers that mar and distort the uniform surface of the fabric. The source of the occasional random orientation of the fibers in these sections arises from a variety of processing problems. Heretofore, these random arrays of discrete misoriented fibers have been uniformly considered unacceptable. It has therefore been conventional to attempt to eliminate this non-uniform appearance of printed flocked fibers.
In addition to occasional random appearances of discrete misoriented fibers in multicolored flocked fabrics, uniformly dyed pile fabrics have also been made of natural woven fibers, such as cotton or viscose. In such woven systems, cotton or viscose pile fabrics are conventionally dyed. After dyeing, fabrics can be printed using conventional print techniques such as pigment printing or discharge printing.
Flocked fabrics have also been piece dyed. In these products, the fabric is dyed with a single color by conventional dyeing techniques. It is during the dyeing process that the fabric is formed with its randomly arranged fibers. Because the fibers are dyed at temperatures in the order of 90.degree. C. (i.e., 194.degree. F.) that are necessary to set the dyes, the resultant product does not lend itself to subsequent color treatment. In particular, the fabric has a solid ground which cannot be further processed with resist printing. If dyed flocked fabrics were subsequently printed with pigment or direct prints, the range of multicolor possibilities would be severely limited by this process.
Texturing has also been attempted by air embossing flocked fabrics and, thereafter, printing. Additionally, heat embossing greige goods and thereafter imprinting them have also been attempted. These systems, however, have certain limitations with respect to the appearance, softness of pile, and styling.
Individual steps that are useful in practicing the present invention have also been well known in the fabric trade. This includes, for example, such practices as open width washing, in which greige goods are washed in an open width or, alternately, in a Beck machine prior to printing. The purpose of such washing steps, however, is to prepare the pile fabric by assuring the directional lay of the pile or, alternately, for providing a light scouring for purposes of improving color adherence or for creating a uniform surface of the pile in one direction. Printed flocked fabrics have been washed in commercial jet or bleach machines after printing. However, it is not economically feasible to obtain a random textured effect in this manner.
Heretofore, the processes that have been commercially available have not been useful in creating a printed pile fabric in which the surface texture of the pile is random or textured.